September 23, 2012

Tapan Sen, MP, General Secretary, CITU writes to Petroleum Minister

Dear Shri S Jaipal Reddy ji,

I draw your urgent attention to the
statement of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas published as advertisement
in the leading National Dailies today on 17th September 2012 under the heading “Was
the increase in price of diesel & capping of Domestic LPG avoidable? No,
for the following reasons:” (copy enclosed)

I totally disagree with the “reasons”
detailed therein but that is not the purpose of drawing your attention here.

The point is that the said statement
published by the Ministry suffers from misrepresentation of facts when it
referred to the recommendation of the ‘all party Standing Committee of
Parliament on Petroleum & Natural Gas on ‘capping of domestic LPG’.

Number one, the recommendation of the
Standing Committee on Petroleum & Natural Gas (8th Report on Demands for
Grants-2011-12) on this particular issue was not at all unanimous as has been
claimed in Ministry’s advertised statement. I as a member of the Standing
Committee, had submitted my ‘note of dissent’ on the recommendation on this
particular issue which was published along with the Report and tabled in Parliament
on 03-08-2011.

Number two, the decision of the Govt
capping the domestic LPG cylinders’ availability to 6 cylinders annually for
all households is at wide variance with what the Standing Committee actually
recommended on that issue, contrary to what has been stated in Ministry’s
advertised statement. The Standing Committee recommended, though not
unanimously, the restriction on domestic LPG availability at subsidized rate
for “people having an income of more than Rs Six Lakh per annum including those
holding constitutional posts, public representatives like MPs, MLAs/MLCs.”

Let me again reiterate, I am not
arguing here on the merit of what the Ministry sought to convey to people
through this advertised statement. I like to state here only that such official
statement of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, that too published as
advertisement in all the national dailies should not indulge in
misrepresentation of facts as pointed out in the preceding paragraphs.

I would request you to please look into
the matter and do the needful so that corrective action is taken at the
earliest to put the facts straight and without distortion or dilution.